How the books became the Bible: The evidence for canon formation from work combinations in manuscripts

Journal article

This paper contributes to a developing conversation about the New Testament canon. I consider the way manuscripts combine different literary works and how those combinations reflect what would come to be explicitly established as the canon. My method is to investigate the works contained in all Greek New Testament manuscripts, dating from before the end of the fourth century. There are a number of cases where only a fragment survives, containing a small part of one work, but where there are also page numbers that enable us to tentatively reconstruct what else might have been present. My results demonstrate that the works which are now considered canonical appear to have been only rarely combined with works now considered non-canonical.

Authors: Dormandy, M

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Society of Biblical Literature
• Journal: TC: A Journal of Biblical Textual Criticism
• Volume: 23
• Publication date: 2018-05-26
• Acceptance date: 2018-05-07
• DOI: 10.17863/cam.38055
• ISSN: 1089-7747
• Language: English
• Keywords: FFR